When the cavalry charges, as long as they form a cone-shaped formation and move up and down continuously, they can win even if the enemy has more people than them.
Huo Qubing and Li Guang led their men to attack from the left and right, while Li Xiang led Ma Chao and others to attack from the middle. The three cavalry groups shuttled back and forth in the Tuyuhun army like three arrows.
There were still some soldiers in the middle who wanted to organize a defense line, but unfortunately Li Xiang and his men were holding crossbows in their hands. As soon as they found more than a hundred soldiers gathered together, they would shoot arrows at them.
Over time, the Tuyuhun soldiers also discovered that if you want to survive, it is better to run away by yourself. If you gather into a queue, it will easily attract the attention of the Tang army. When the Tang army pays attention to you at this time, it will be a disaster. They will never let go of any assembled soldiers. Most of the corpses on the ground are assembled soldiers.
Li Xiang and his men were so excited about the killing. Although they had predicted their victory before, they did not expect it to turn out like this. The scene was really littered with corpses. Many Tuyuhun soldiers had lost their fighting spirit and knelt on the ground, hoping that the Tang army would spare their lives. They didn't even have the strength to escape.
Li Xiang finally stopped panting. He led his cavalry to shuttle back and forth four times. All the troops of Tuyuhun were unable to organize an offensive. Now, except for those who were kneeling on the ground, most of them were lying there waiting to die.
"Rest for a while, then clean up the battlefield and capture them alive."
Li Xiang felt that his voice was hoarse. When he was leading his brothers to charge into battle just now, he shouted loudly to give orders to his brothers to do things until his voice was hoarse.
"Your Highness, the Emperor's uncle Yu Dan has escaped."
When charging in just now, Huo Qubing thought of capturing the leader first. No matter where Yu Dan was, he would lead his men to kill him first. However, Yu Dan had already run away. Although there was a bright yellow carriage frame in the team, there was no one on it.
"He's clever, but there's no point in running back. He brought all his elite troops with him. After this battle, the number of soldiers he has will never exceed 10,000. Given such a crushing defeat, I doubt the Tuyuhun Khan will forgive him. He's lost too many troops."
Li Xiang said with a smile that the Ronggong tribe was the third largest tribe of Tuyuhun, and it had many capable and brave people under its command. However, after this battle, most of the generals and soldiers of the Ronggong tribe were killed here. After all, the people who ran away with Yu Dan were a minority. For Tuyuhun, this was a huge defeat. It would be strange if the Tuyuhun Khan could spare him.
"Your Highness is right. This fellow is one of Yu Dan's lieutenant generals. I whipped him twice just now, and he said everything he should and shouldn't say. The Tuyuhun Khan didn't allow Yu Dan to lead his troops to the battle. When he discovered us, he gathered all the surrounding troops. Now, I estimate that all the people from the fifteen surrounding tribes are rushing here."
Li Guang rode a horse and pulled a man over. This man was the lieutenant general under Yu Dan. At this moment, he told everything in order to save his life.
According to what he said, Yu Dan pulled out nearly 40,000 people in total. Except for 6,000 cavalrymen from his own unit, no one else ran away. The main reason was that his men were in the core position. When the bombardment just started, his men were still able to gather together. As for the other troops, they were already in chaos when the bombardment just started.
"How many people are left in your tribe?"
Li Xiang looked at the large number of captives around him and guessed that there might not be many people left in the Ronggong tribe.
"In reply to Your Highness, we still have nearly 40,000 people in our tribe, but 30,000 of them are women, the elderly, and children. They don't have much combat power. However, the people from the 15 nearby tribes should have gathered in our tribe. They can provide a total of nearly 30,000 troops."
This guy said honestly that he was just a man on the grassland in normal times, and it was impossible for him to betray his tribe, but too many people died today, making him feel that the Tang army was invincible, so even if he continued to resist with his men, there would be no good result in the end.
To put it bluntly, their faith collapsed, especially when the Tang army rushed over. They had never seen such brave cavalry. Although some warriors from their tribe also rushed up with swords, as those defeated soldiers said, our weapons are completely different from those of the Tang soldiers. No matter how strong you are, you can't resist the steel knives in the hands of the Tang army. They can cut off your weapon with one knife. How can we resist such an army?
So in this situation, even the bravest Tuyuhun warriors began to have doubts in their hearts. Could it be that it was really as the Tang army claimed, that they were people from the Celestial Empire, and we were just barbarians from the southwest? If we were to fight against the people from the Celestial Empire, then the final result would only be death, which was already destined by God.
People of this era generally had some feudal superstitions. This theory had already begun to circulate on the grassland before the Tang army arrived. Coupled with the Tang army's victory after victory, these people could not help but believe it. This is also one of the reasons why there are so many prisoners today.
Li Xiang calculated in his mind. The other side had gathered 30,000 cavalrymen again. It was not impossible to fight, but the problem was that there were at least 20,000 prisoners in front of him. If he killed all these people, it would be a sin. Before, he didn't care about one or two thousand, but now there were 20,000 prisoners!
It is not possible to take these people to fight, so Li Xiang can only return to Liangzhou City first. If he takes these people to fight, he will have to send troops to guard them, which is definitely a bad idea.
"Send some men to organize the troops and tie up these people. Tie them up in groups of ten. If anyone dares to escape, kill ten of them."
After a brief thought in his mind, Li Xiang immediately found the most advantageous course of action for himself, which was to take these people back to Liangzhou City as quickly as possible.
"Are we not going to fight the Ronggong tribe anymore?"
Disappointment was left on Huo Qubing's face. He had been sharpening his sword for a long time and was about to kill these prisoners. Once they were all killed, we could continue the battle...